Scott L. Smith Jr.
Scott L. Smith Jr. is a Catholic American author and attorney. Smith is the author of several books of Catholic theology and devotion including 33 Days to the Holy Family and Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families co-authored with Fr. Donald Calloway, Near Death Experiences, Pray the Rosary with St. John Paul II, The Catholic ManBook, and a new translation of the Preparation for Total Consecration according to Saint Louis de Montfort. He is the past Chairman of the Men of the Immaculata.
Career and personal life
Smith graduated from Edmond Memorial High School in 2001 and Texas A&M University in 2006 with a degree in chemical engineering. He then entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Smith has a master's degree in theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his juris doctor from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center of Louisiana State University in 2013.Smith was an assistant attorney general with the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General from 2015 to 2019 before opening his own law practice.
Smith lives in New Roads, Louisiana, with his wife Sara Ashton LaGrone and their five children.
Writing and podcasting
In 2010, Smith began a series of articles exploring the Lembas waybread as a symbol for the Eucharist in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. These articles were published as an anthology, Lord of the Rings and the Eucharist. Actor Kevin O'Brien, who has portrayed J. R. R. Tolkien on EWTN and elsewhere, narrated the audiobook version of Lord of the Rings and the Eucharist.Since 2010, Smith has worked as a freelance essayist and lecturer on Biblical topics, including typology, Mariology, and Biblical references in contemporary books and movies. Smith has written and lectured on Mary, mother of Jesus.
Smith has written on Catholic and Christian themes appearing in comics, science fiction, and current movies. A collection of his articles on these topics was published as The Theology of Sci-Fi: The Christian's Guide to the Galaxy.
In 2018, Smith collaborated with Louisiana historian Brian J. Costello on a series of biographies of holy men and beatified people, entitled Blessed Is He Who...: Models of Catholic Manhood.
Smith co-authored with Fr. Donald Calloway the Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families.
In 2025, Smith published a Catholic overview of near-death experiences. This work, Near Death Experiences, is believed to be the first comprehensive Catholic treatment of the subject from an historical, Biblical, and contemporary perspective.
Smith has written several horror novels, including The Seventh Word and The Cajun Zombie Chronicles.
As of 2019, Smith co-hosts the Catholic Nerds Podcast.